Movin to the country, gonna eat me a lot of peaches….

Still waiting….. I feel it in my bones that it’ll all be moving forward super soon.

I’m making productive use of my spare time and am starting to propagate plants for the new property. So far I’ve got rosemary, pittosporum and feijoa underway. I’m eyeing off different trees to take cuttings from as that’s going to save me a butt load of money. I recieved a Diggers voucher for Christmas so I’m going to buy some trees and propagate a bit more.

And this weekend I’m pressing the scary SUBMIT button on my Permaculture Design Certificate final assignment. I’ve been tweaking and retweaking and it’s time to just submit the thing! Because the land is such a blank canvas it’s like being faced with a blank piece of paper, there’s still some spots I’m not entirely sure what to do with but I think that will resolve over time. Might give you a sneak peek when I’m done 🙂
Just a super quick update cuz nothing much is happening. Just me getting excited and bursting with inspiration!

So things have been really quiet on the western front. The kind of quiet that gets eyed with suspicion but I’m trying to remain positive!

I mentioned last time we spoke that I’ve got my eye on a piece of land. That land is being subdivided from a larger parcel and has been sitting with the local council to be approved and finalised before it’s ready for sale. Last year I was in regular contact with the owner for fortnightlyish updates as it was almost done but since December I’ve rang and left a few messages and haven’t had a return phone call or text to let me know what’s going on…. My mind, of course, is running away with the pixies and jumping to all the wrong conclusions with all sorts of crap scenarios being turned over.

I’m so itchingly close to this whole thing being a reality (which in itself is a little unreal) but I’m chalking it up to the grand patience lesson that this land/homestead/house building journey is all about. Just gotta wait a little longer I guess. And I also had one of those weird thought moments about patience and time as I was feeling frustrated about being in limbo and nothing happening YET AGAIN. The thought was not so much about the waiting but what I’m actually doing with the time that I’ve been “given”. Instead of moping about and feeling sorry for myself I feel like I need to be doing constructive things with this time. I’m going to busy enough once I get the land and get going. At the moment I’m working on my Permaculture Design Certificate final assignment (on the new land of course) but I feel like I need to do more. Of what I don’t know. Maybe I just need to fkn relax? No idea 🙂

So I’m staying positive and just chalking it up to my ever lovin impatience as it is ONLY the third week of January… And councils are hella slow right? right?

Herro! So it dawned on me last night that we haven’t spoken in a while, yet again. So lemme get you up to speed without all the usual verbal diarrhea:

The old place is SOLD! After a lil false start shortly after I last posted in which I had an offer and then it all fell through, three months after my last update it was a goner. The new people are really lovely and a perfect fit for the community.

I’ve moved out and am currently residing with the mother parental unit

I’ve been madly looking for a new plot of land to build my house as the previous dot point is going swell….

I shouldn’t really complain as it could be a whole lot worse but we’re both so used to having our own space and being boss of the castle and I miss having my own space.

I think I may have found somewhere to build! I’m going to have a second look next week so I hope to have an exciting update shortly. I’ve already had a chat with the bank and I’ve been given the green light so I think it’s just a matter of putting on the haggle hat and getting a good price.

So many things swirling round my head with the potential of this new place, so many things I need and want to do!

Soo…. my lil hiatus is officially over! Did you miss me?? So what have you been up to? How’s the farm and kids? What have you grown lately?

So I’ll be blooging regularly again. I’ve missed writing to you and quite frankly I’m not sure why I’ve been gone so long when we have so much to talk about. Here are some highlights of happenings while I’ve been gone:

Nothing

Seriously though not much has changed since my last ramble. My place is still on the market, I’ve come close to getting an offer a couple of times but their finance has fallen through. I had an inspection last weekend with a really nice couple and I’m hopeful they love it enough to make an offer. It seemed to tick all the right boxes for them and it’s what they’re looking for so I’ll just have to be patient and wait to hear from them. I’ve got another inspection this coming weekend so that’s plan b I guess 🙂 One of the bonuses to having a house inspection is that my house is so sparkly and clean, it’s a really nice feeling.

Check out the sky the other day, it looked painted after the storm so I had to take pics 🙂

One thing that has changed is that I’ve started Geoff Lawton’s online Permaculture Design Course and totally loving it. I can’t remember if I mentioned wanting to do it here before (I’ll have to read my own blog!) but it’s turning out to be more than I hoped for and I’m seriously inspired and learning so much. I’ve had a few ideas on things to do around the place but I’m still going to move as there are too many things that just aren’t right about the place for me that even permaculture can’t remedy.

BUT I have found a new plot of land recently that would be just perfect to build my straw bale house upon. I’ve even come up with a name for it but I’m not going to share just yet as I don’t want to jinx it. And I need to sell this place first before I start looking too far ahead. I may or may not have looked up domain names and WordPress names for this place and contemplated buying a domain for it… again… trying not to jump the gun too much hehe.

Duck update: I’m down to two – Bruce and Blondie. I had 4 for the longest time and then 3 of them did a little disappearing act but came back a few weeks later after I’d rehomed the drake (Frank) who was left behind as he was stressed out living all alone. The two girls disappeared for a week a short while later and only Blondie came back so RIP Chicken, she always was a big ole scaredy cat. I was almost a grandmother again this year as Blondie went all broody in the coop again this last month but fate stepped in and the weekend that they were due to hatch, the eggs mysteriously disappeared. I have a feeling this big guy:

snuck in the coop and had himself a lil duck dinner. I’d seen him hanging around the house for a week or two and of course now that all the eggs are gone I haven’t seen him back. It’s also starting to get colder so that could also be why. While I love the ducklings cuz they’re so darn cute I really didn’t want them right now if I’m about to move out (depending whether the new owner is interested in keeping them of course) so while it’s sad that they were eaten, it’s also, selfishly, a good thing. The circle of life n all that.

Anyway I just wanted to pop my head in and see how you are, glad you’re well 🙂 I won’t be a stranger, I promise!

ffffffffftt fffffffffttt ooh sorry bout that… had to blow the dust off you. Hi remember me? 🙂 Still haven’t perfected that post from my head implant yet. Can you tell? Well so much has happened since my last post. Sadly Mummy and one of the boys (Doug) were taken on the same day. I found Doug half eaten and Mummy was just nowhere to be found so I’m not sure if she flew off and got lost or was taken away to be eaten in private. So now I’ve got two boys (Bruce and Frank) and two girls (Chicken and Blondie) left. I was going to post about it at the time but I think this blog was becoming The Duck Death Blog of DOOOOOM so decided not to. And I really felt the loss of Mummy as did the remaining babies, they were really lost for a couple of days. The other ducky deaths I’ve managed to kind of shrug off but I kept hoping every morning and afternoon when I went out to the coop that she’d be there, that she was just lost and found her way home. But it’s been a couple of months now so she’s gone 😦

Just one other duck update before I tell you about everything else that’s a bit more exciting that’s going on right now… You know how I was hoping that the girls wouldn’t inherit Mummy’s super broody biatch behaviour… This week Blondie started making a particular peep that the broodies do when they’re sitting on eggs and I’ve been watching the coop but haven’t seen any eggs yet so I didn’t think that they were laying yet. She was looking a lil ruffled and manky too and low and behold on Tuesday morning she didn’t come out of the coop for breakfast and was sitting on a feathered nest lookin all pleased with herself. BUGGER!! Luckily for me as I was driving off to work I spied her out of the coop so raced down and locked the coop up to try and break her broody. That afternoon I went to have a look at the spot she’d been sitting in and the sneaky bird had half buried her eggs and there were 15 of them! No wonder I couldn’t see anything. I’m not sure if they’re both laying in that spot or if it’s just Blondie but I’ll have to keep an eye on them now dangit. But the broodiness is broken for now PHEW! Also looks like there’s been a change in leadership as Bruce has always been the boss but since the spring Frank has taken over. He’s grown up to be the spitting image of his dad so it’s no wonder. And just as big of a doofus as his dad too (although he can fly pretty well suprisingly enough!) The boys get on OK for the most part but there’s occasional pecking order reminding going on. Them getting on with their sisters is a whole other topic that I won’t go into now.

But on to more exciting news…. my house is going on the market next week! You know how I’d posted that I’d have to wait and yadda yadda, well I met a neighbour who lives a couple of properties down from me and she mentioned that she’d had a real estate agent round (who sold a place in the valley recently within a month of listing) to give an evaluation of her place and she said that he already had a buyer lined up if she was interested in selling (which she isn’t). So that spurred me on and I contacted my bank to find out what the actual payout figure is to break the fixed portion of my loan and it’s WAAAAAYYYY less that what I thought and something I can definitely afford so I’m not going to wait a year. I’m going NOW!

So lately I’ve been busy packing and painting and doing little cheap cosmetic renos to make the place look really good and the same agent is coming over this weekend and I’m going to put it on the market. Fingers x-ed that buyer is still there at the ready but if not I know it’ll get sold pretty quickly. I found out yesterday that one of the properties that’s currently for sale on my road is under offer and it’s only been on the market for a month or two so my spirits are buoyed! It’ll be great to get moving on this dream of mine and I’m keeping an eye out on the land offerings. So yay for the new blog category “New House 2.0”. SO exciting! I’m excited but I’m still trying to remind myself of the patience lesson… I’ll post some pics of what I’ve been doing next post as I’ve just changed phones and all the pics are on my old phone 🙂

So I was watching Nick Knowles Original Features on the weekend and the show was about a couple who were doing up a ramshackle ole farmhouse which was really cute. BUT one of the things that struck me deep within my lusty decor heart was a little segment towards the end of the show where they were finishing off the bathroom and they trying to squeeze the bathtub through the bathroom door. Not just any ole bathtub but it was a copper bath!! I’ve never seen one before. It was almost a rounded egg shape. It was SO beautiful. I’m seriously in love with it (but not enough to marry it though…)

Promptly had to google it to see if such a beautiful beast can be found in my fair land, which is not usually the case, and YES! At aptly named copperbathaustralia.com.au hahaha! It’s a different (but equally beautiful) shape than the one on the show and it looks deep enough to get your whole body in for a delicious soak. Isn’t it BEAUTIFUL?!!

(image from copperbathaustralia.com.au)

(image from copperbathaustralia.com.au)

Only thing not so beautiful about it is the price tag 😦 But tis to be expected for something that solid. They also do beautiful basins so I’m seriously considering placating my desire with one of the oval ones instead. hmmm don’t think I’ve said the word beautiful enough have I? *sigh*

(image from copperbathaustralia.com.au)

I love the brand new shininess of them but also love how it patinas. It’s funny because ages ago I wanted a copper roof. I think it was on Grand Designs or something similar that a woman did a round copper roof and the verdigris patina was just lovely. I gave up on that idea because of the cost and heat aspect but a copper basin in my ensuite… I could drool over it every day and it would go with my ensuite colour scheme (which is either grey or light teal/sage). mmm yummy!

(and just FYI – I have nothing to do with copperbathaustralia other than bumping up their site page count with all my drooliness and lustiness)

So a friend lent me a really fancypants Canon camera and I was going to take some superdooper pics of the babies and do an individual profile on each of them now that they’re teenagers with proper lil personalities… but then yesterday happened.

A MFKN WEDGE TAILED EAGLE GRABBED ONE OF MY BABIES!!! Yes!! AN EAGLE!

(not the actual eagle… photo from broomebirdobservatory.com)

This thing was HUGE! It had a wingspan of at least 6 or 7 foot! Here I was thinking that foxes were going to be the problem with the babies but nuuuuuu goannas and eagles. Who woulda thunk it…

The babies have worked out what those feathery things attached to their bodies are and spend a lot of time jogging and flapping around the yard which is just insanely cute. Some of them can get off the ground and fly a little ways (not the boys cuz they’re too big and goofy). So when I was getting dressed yesterday morning and heard them flapping around outside I didn’t really think much of it until I heard one of them quack. Now my ducks, being Muscovies, don’t quack at all so I had a look outside to see what was going on. I saw three of them flap flying down to the coop and bonk into the fence that separates the yard from the coop! I just thought to myself “silly duckies watch out for the fence ya doofuses!” thinking it was flight lesson time. I watched them a little longer to make sure they were OK and saw them continue down towards the coop so I continued getting dressed and out the door for work.

Just before I hopped in my truck I noticed that they were nowhere to be seen so must have been in their coop house (which is inside the fenced part of the coop) which struck me as a little odd as their usual morning routine after being fed breakie is to forage in the grass inside the yard. Just before I drove through the gate I caught a glimpse of a bunch of feathers out the corner of my eye so I stopped and got out to investigate only to see this GIANT eagle with massive wings take off over the fence, wind whoooshing as it flapped away.

My brain stopped working because I wasn’t sure what I’d just seen. A mfkn EAGLE!!! Almost pinched myself to check… I went over to where it had been on the ground and just found a lot of plucked feathers and realised it must have nabbed one of the babies so I went down to the coop and found them all scared shitless hiding out in the coop house. I cracked the door open just a little and counted them… 6 not 7 😦 I had a quick look at them all and worked out that it was lil Mabel. She was one of my favourites as she was the “guy’s gal”. The other two girls (apart from Mama) are dainty princess scaredy cats where as Mabel was a little bigger and always used to chum around with her three brothers and was a bit bolder than the rest. She was the first to really get off the ground and fly too.

I let them all be and continued on to work with my mind completely blown that a) I had just seen a giant wedge tailed eagle and 2) that it had taken one of my ducks. All day I was just in amazement at what I’d seen. Until I got home and the babies were still traumatised. Usually when I go down to give them dinner and lock them up they’ll meet me half way or up in the house yard but this time they didn’t really set foot out of the coop and seemed happy to be locked up. I gave them some peas (their fave) as a lil soothing treat. I went back to the pile of feathers and actually found the half eaten carcass so I’m not sure if she was there and I overlooked her or whether the eagle came back with her and ate her there.

This morning they were fairly happy in the coop when I let them out and fed them breakie but when I left for work a little while later they were all back in the coop house again so they’re not happy lil ducks. I’m heading home in a bit so I hope they’ve been out of the coop (and the coop house) so I’ll have to wait and see how they cope with this. Poor lil bubbys.

I really hope that this eagle doesn’t come back and pick them off one by one as the goanna did with the last batch. It nabbed her in my yard close to my house so it’s bold. I had a chat to a friend who lives rurally and she mentioned that “wedgies” are known to take little lambs, small dogs and chickens too! I’m thankful I got to know lil Mabel and happy that I gave her a good life while she was with me. I’ll still take pics of the feathered family and give you a proper introduction to them… just minus one 😦